AAI declares total of 55 airports as Single-Use-Plastic-free terminals

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New Delhi: Airports Authority of India (AAI), the state-run body which operates 125 airports across the country, on Tuesday declared another 20 more airports free from Single Use Plastic (SUP), taking the total count to 55. 

Single use plastics or disposable plastics are used only once before they are dumped or recycled. Items like plastic cups, plastic bags, straws, coffee stirrers, water bottles, six pack rings and most food packaging fall under the Single Use Plastic category.

Earlier, the AAI had declared at least 35 airports free from Single-use plastic.

Taking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal on reducing the use of Single Use Plastic, the Aviation Ministry had directed its arm AAI to ban the use of SUP at its airports.

The 20 airports which were declared as SUP free are: Allahabad, Aurangabad, Belgaum, Bhuj, Dibrugarh, Dimapur, Gaya, Gorakhpur, Jabalpur, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Jorhat, Kangra, Khajuraho, Leh, Rajahmundry, Rajkot, Silchar, Surat and Tuticorin.

In the first phase, these airports were declared plastic-free terminals by the AAI: Indore, Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Tirupati, Trichy, Kolkata, Varanasi, Chennai, Patna, Coimbatore, Ranchi, Trivandrum, Goa, Lucknow, Vijayawada, Dehradun, Chandigarh, Vadodara, Madurai, Raipur, Vizag, Pune, Udaipur, Srinagar, Imphal, Jammu, Mangalore, Amritsar, Port Blair, Guwahati, Bagdogra, Agartala, Calicut and Jaipur.